Israel-Hamas war: Killing of Sinwar offers chance of ceasefire, Kamala Harris says

US vice-president Kamala Harris said on Saturday that the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a mastermind of the attack that ignited the war in the Gaza Strip, presented an opportunity for a ceasefire in the Middle East.
“This creates an opening that I believe we must take full advantage of to dedicate ourselves to ending this war and bringing the hostages home,” Ms Harris said. “As it relates to the issues in the Middle East and in particular in that region, it has never been easy. But that doesn’t mean we give up. It’s always going to be difficult.”
Earlier on Saturday, a drone was launched toward Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s home in Caesarea, his spokesman has said.
Mr Netanyahu was not at home at the time of attack and there were no casualties. He vowed that Iran and its proxies would “pay a heavy price”, and that Israel would continue to “eliminate the terrorists and those who dispatch them”.
Earlier, 30 Palestinians were killed, including 20 children and women, and more than 50 others were wounded in an Israeli strike on Gaza’s Jabalia camp in northern Gaza, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency WAFA reported early on Saturday.
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The Israeli military said on Friday it sent another army unit to support its forces operating in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps, where residents said tanks blew up roads and houses as they moved further into the territory.
Residents of Jabalia said Israeli tanks had reached the heart of the camp, using heavy air and ground fire, after pushing through suburbs and residential districts.
They said the Israeli army was destroying dozens of houses on a daily basis, sometimes from the air and the ground and by placing bombs in buildings then detonating them remotely.
The Israeli military said its forces, which have been operating in Jabalia for the past two weeks, killed dozens of militants in close-quarters combat on Thursday and carried out aerial strikes and dismantled military infrastructure.
The escalation of Israel’s Jabalia operation came a day after it said it had killed the country’s number-one enemy, Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s chief, whom it blamed for ordering the October 7th attack on Israel, the deadliest in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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The Israeli military says its operation in Jabalia is intended to stop Hamas fighters from regrouping for more attacks.
Residents said Israeli forces had effectively isolated the far northern Gazan towns of Beit Hanoun, Jabalia and Beit Lahiya from Gaza City, blocking movement except for those families heeding evacuation orders and leaving the three towns.
On Friday, health officials appealed for fuel, medical supplies and food to be sent immediately to three northern Gaza hospitals overwhelmed by the number of patients and injuries.
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At the Kamal Adwan Hospital, medics had to replace children in intensive care with more critical cases of adults badly wounded by Israeli air strikes on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Jabalia on Thursday, killing 28 people.
The children were moved to another division inside the facility, where they were being well taken care of, he said.
“All those cases are critical and they need medical intervention,” said Hussam Abu Safiya, Kamal Adwan’s director in a video sent to the media.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency Unrwa, said on X that the attack on the school was the third on an Unrwa facility this week, adding the agency had now lost a total of 231 team members in the past year of fighting.
Abu Safiya said 300 medical staff, who had been working for 14 days, were becoming too exhausted, especially with the failure of the hospital to provide them with adequate food as all supplies were depleting.
Doctors at the Kamal Adwan, Al-Awda and Indonesian hospitals have refused to leave their patients despite evacuation orders issued by the Israeli military at the start of its Jabalia push.
[ Gaza: At least 28, including children, killed in Israeli strike on school sheltering displaced peopleOpens in new window ]
Northern Gaza, which had been home to more than half the territory’s 2.3 million people, was bombed to rubble in the first phase of Israel’s assault a year ago.
Israel began its military campaign after the October 7th attacks on southern Israel by Hamas-led fighters, who killed 1,200 people and captured 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s offensive so far, said Gaza’s health authorities. – Reuters